these men enveigh and preach against preaching As what needes so much preaching say they and all stupified sensualists it was never a good world since so many Lectures were set up their was more love and charity and plain dealing among our fore-fathers they mean in time of Popery who were onely verst in the Lords Prayer Creed and ten Commandments one Sermon well remembred and put in practise is better then ten yea quoth a Minister in the pulpit that preacht himself once in six weekes that he might silence his Parishoners who complained for want of their daily food you will finde this Sermon more then you will be able to practise this two months and no question spake out of feeling for he having lived already above five ages could never yet put those five wordes of his text into practise viz. Repent and beleeve the Gospel But the reason of this their murmuring is easie Carnall worldlings cry up practise to cry down knowledge as you may see by their own practise even as cunning Papists will extoll Saint Iames onely to disparage Saint Paul This point would be further applyed but let conscience do it for it is a sore that will not endure rubbing onely this if any man be vexed at his brother because he fares better and is better accepted because he is favoured and respected of God and goodmen while himself is neglected and dis-esteemed of both much more if he belch out his spleene against the religious because they are praised and preferred before himself let him know that this could not be if he were not full of the venome of the serpent Psal 112.10 Pro. 14.30 Secondly this may be applied to people of the looser sort As why do all drunkards and vicious livers hate the religious and so belch out their enmitie and spleen against them in raising and spreading of slanders as they doe but although partly to rescue themselves from contempt and procure a contrary esteem by putting a foule and ugly vizard upon vertue and decking up vice in a gorgeous and comely attire yet chiefly because they are precious in Gods sight his peculiar and chosen people out of all the world the children of God and members of Christ temples of the holy Ghost yea chiefly because they partake of the Divine Nature and are one with the Father and the Sonne Iohn 17.14 21 22. 2 Cor. 6.18 This is the eye-sore of our enemies and let envie look her selfe blinde And so much of the first Cause Quest What is the second Cause why ungodly men hate and persecute the religious Answ Their ignorance of God of Christ and the Scriptures Quest How is that proved Answ By Testimonies Examples Reason and our own Experience 1. First by Testimonies They shall hate and persecute you yea they shall excommunicate and kill you for my Names sake saith our Saviour to his Disciples because they have not known the Father nor me Iohn 16.2.3 15.21 And again they are an offence unto us because they understand not the things which are of God but the things which are of men Matth. 16.23 And are deceived because they know not the scriptures neither the power of God Matth. 22.29 Luke 19.42 2. Secondly by Examples Reason This the Apostle confesseth to have been the cause of his persecuting the Church 1. Tim. 1.13 Who so soon as he was inlightned with the saving knowledge of the truth changed his note with his name and preached that faith which before he persecuted It s worth the noting how he was no sooner informed but he was reformed Now if we look upon him as Saul we shall see what we are by generation if we look upon him as Paul we shall see what we are or should be by regeneration Neither is it strange that the men of the world through ignorance should hate and persecute the members of Christ for upon the same ground they even crucified Christ himself Father forgive them saith he of his murtherers for they know not what they do And why have the kings of the earth in all ages banded themselves together against the Lord and against his Christ Psal 2.2 But because they knew him not John 15.21 For if the Princes of this world had known they would not have crucisied the Lord of glory as the holy Ghost speakes 1. Cor. 2.8 Yea if we consider it rightly we shall finde that ignorance is the cause of all sin Sin indeed at the first was the cause of ignorance but now ignorance is the cause of sin Swearing and lying and killing and stealing and whoring abound saith the Prophet because there is no knowledge of God in the land Hos 4.1.2 It is a people that do erre in their hearts saith God why because they have not known my wayes Psal 95.10 3. Thirdly Experience proves that none are so far transported with a mad superstitious zeal against the religious as the rude rabble who can yeeld no other reason or confession of their faith if they be asked than this that they are no puritanes or that they hate a Puritane from their soules when as the devill himself who hates the Puritane they meane most of any can make as good a confession of his faith as this For who are the greatest censurers and the violentest opposers of goodnesse are not the ignorant fry who have more rage then reason and the more sottish still the more insolent As reprove one of them for swearing or drunkennesse or uniust dealing or for prophaning the Lords day for Atheisme and the like you are sure to be branded with the odious title of Puritane yea you are factious and schismaticall if ye will not be drunk and every whit as lewd as they are It is worth a large smile to observe what a clamour the blundering rabble will make against the people of God if one in their company but mention the word Puritane or tell them how scrupulous precise such an one is O what a number of sharp and deadly arrows will each of them shoot both at the good and goodnesse maugre all admonition For each being stung with the Gad-flie of mis-governed zeal as Paul was before he knew Christ they presume to affirm with incredible impudence accompanied with invincible ignorance that there are not worse men in the world then the religious Wherein it is hard to say whether ignorance or malice do more abound whether it be more out of the strength of will or weaknesse of judgement It is the nature of ignorant and carnall men that walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleannesse whom Saint Peter calls brute beasts led with sensuallity to speak evill of the things which they understand not 2 Pet. 2.12 Especially in judging acts of zeal and piety their opinion still lights upon the worst sense like them in the second of the Acts who mocked the Apostles when they were filled with the holy Ghost and hearing them speak languages which they understood not cried
The Cure of PREIVDICE Or The Doves Innocency and the Serpents subtilty wherein The Originall Continuance Properties Causes Endes Issue and Effects of the worlds Envie and hatred to the Godly Is pithily laid open and applyed By R. Junius GEN. 3.15 I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman and betweene thy seed and her seede it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele PRO. 29.27 A wicked man is Abomination to the Just and he that is upright in his way is Abomination to the wicked LONDON Printed by I. B. and are to be sold by James Crump at his house in Well-Yard in little S. Bartholmews 1641. Courteous Reader HAving perused this first part of the Cure of Prejudice we finde it to containe a lively description of that enmity and hatred which the wicked beare to Gods people together with a perspicuous discovery of the grounds reasons of it laid down pithily orderly and elegantly with much both sinew ous strength of argumeÌ„t and variety of gracefull delightful Illustration The which through Gods blessing accompanying it is likely to prove of much use to all sorts that shall read the same whether in comforting the godly in their sufferings or in reclaiming or at least convincing such as any way oppose the way of truth So that whatsoever time labour diligence thou shalt spend in often reading it we doubt not but the profit will recompence thy paines abundantly GEORGE WALKER EDM. CALAMY IOSEPH CARYLL THE CVRE OF PREJUDICE OR The DOVES Innocency and the SERPENTS Subtilty wherein The Originall Continuance Properties Causes Ends Issue and Effect of the Worlds Envie and Hatred to the Godly is pithily laid open and applied by way of Question and Answer between a weake and an experienced Christian Question HOw is it that the practice of Christianity is every where spoken against under the name of Schisme as the chiefe Jewes told Paul in his time Acts 28.22 And that so soone as men become religious and conscionable they are made a by-word of the people Job 17.6 A song of the drunkards Psal 69.12 And generally hated of all Matth. 10.22 Answer Know yee not saith Saint James that the Amity of the World is the Enmity of God And that whosoever will be a friend of the World maketh himselfe the enemy of God James 4.4 A wicked man saith Solomon is abomination to the Just and he that is upright in his way is abomination to the wicked Pro. 29.27 There is a naturall Enmity and a spirituall Antipathy betweene the men of the World and the Children of God whence it is that the holy Ghost who can give most congruous Names to Natures useth in the Scripture Gods Dictionary not onely to call wicked men Adders Aspes Gockatrices Serpents Dragons Lyons Tygers c. Psal 10.9 74.13 80.13 140.3 Esay 14.29 Dan. 7. Zeph. 3. Matth. 23.33 which are the mortallest enemies to mankind that live but most frequently Wolves and the godly Sheep Behold saith our Saviour to his Apostles I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Mat. 10.16 between whom there is a strange contrariety and antipathy living and dead as both Naturalists and Lutinists observe It is an everlasting rule of the Apostles He that is born after the Flesh will persecute him that is born after the Spirit Gal. 4.29 not because he is evil but because he is so much better then himself 1 John 3.12 because his life is not like other mens his wayes are of another fashion Wis 2.15 for therefore speake they evill of you because yee will no longer run with them to the same excesse of ryot 1 Pet. 4 4. Quest But are not many discouraged and others beaten off from being Religious through the daily scoffes and reproaches which in every place the godly meete withall for refusing to doe as others doe with whom they are conversant Answ Yea millions there being no such rub in the way to Heaven as that generall contempt which the Devill and the World have cast upon Religion and the practisers of Piety which makes our Saviour pronounce that man blessed that is not offended in him Matth. 11.6 For hereby it is growne to that that men feare nothing more then to have a name that they feare God and are more ashamed to bee holy then prophane because holinesse is worse intreated then prophanenesse with Peter we are apt to deny our Religion when we come in company with Christs enemies and with David to dissemble our Faith when we are amongst Philistims Like those white-liverd Rulers John 12 42. who loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God wee choose to conceale our knowledge of and love to Christ lest we should be mockt have so many frownes and frumps and censures and scoffes be branded with that odious and stigmaticall name of an Hypocrite c. True with Nicodemus we owe God some good will but we dare not shew it because of this we would please him yet so as we might not displease others nor our selves Like the young man in the Gospell we will follow Christ so Christ propound no other conditions then what wee like of but what will be the issue our Saviour saith expresly That he will be ashamed of such at the latter day who are now ashamed for his sake to beare a few scoffes and reproaches from the World Mark 8.38 But secondly it so forestalleth such as are without with Prejudice against goodnesse and circumspect walking that they resolve never to be Religious so long as they live As how many not onely stumble at Christ the living and chiefe corner stone elect of God and preclous but quite fal as at a Rocke of offence yea utterly disallow of the things that are excellent onely through the contempt which is cast upon Religion 1 Pet. 2.7 8. What such mens thoughts are we may heare from the damned in Hell We fooles thought their lives madnesse c. Wisd 5.3 4. And experience shewes that they will hate a man to the death though he have nothing to condemne him but his being holy Yea where Satan hath once set this his porter of Prejâ—dice though Christ himselfe were on earth that souâ—e would stumble and bee offended at his very best actions as we see in the Scribes and Pharisees who made an evill construction of whatsoever he did or spake For when he wrought Miracles hee was a Sorcerer When he cast out Devils it was by the power of Devils When hee reproved sinners he was a seducer When he received sinners he was their favourer When he healed the sick he was a breaker of the Sabbath c. John 8. Nor can the highest eloquence of the best Preacher ever reclaime such For first words are vagabonds where the Admonished hath an evill opinion of the Admonisher Secondly they are resolved against yeelding Thirdly let them be convinc't by strength of argument the thought of those things presently passes away like
the sound of a Bell that is rung O this is a difficult Devill to be cast out even like that which we read of Math. 17.16 For as all the Disciples could not cast out that Devill no more can all the Preachers this for the Cure of Prejudice alone in one man is more then to cure the seaven deadly sinnes as the Papists tearme them in another Nay if I may speake it with reverence what meanes can God use that shall be able to convert such an one The nine plagues shall not prevaile with Pharaoh the graves opening the dead arising the vayle of the Temple renting the light of the Sunne fayling the Centurion confessing c. will doe no good uppon the Scribes and Pharisees Yea though Ahab be told from the Lord that if he goe to Warre hee shall perish yet he goeth and speeds accordingly Quest But how should weake Christians know the mystery of this iniquity shake off this slavish yoke of bondage and feare in which Satan for the present holds them Answ Search the Scriptures and they will so cleare your judgement and cure your Prejudice that in some measure you shall be enabled to quench those fiery darts Ephes 6.16 I meane the reproaches of those evill tongues which are set on fire from Hell James 3.6 for Virgil most excellently and profoundly couples the knowledge of cause and the conquest of all feares together First for the informing of your judgement our Saviour Christ and his Apostles hath abundantly foretold the same Of a multitude of predictions I 'le only instance three or foure All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 Not some but all and what all but even all that will live godly Now me thinkes if there were no other texts in the Bible but this one it were omnisufficient to take away Prejudice and wonder touching the Worlds hatred and calumny but the Scriptures are full of the like Yee shall be hated of all men and Nations saith our Saviour for my Names sake Matth. 10.22 24.9 Not of a few but of all Men and Nations that is all naturall men or the greatest part of men in all Countryes and Nations yea and for no other cause but for professing of Christs Name Neither is Christ a Signe to be spoken against of many in Babylon or Assyria but of many in Israel Luke 2.34 where Religion is profest publickly Yea when sincerity is wanting the nearer the line with any opposition the greater Eclips The Gadereans but besought Christ to depart his owne country-men drave him out and cast him downe headlong Luke 4.29 Yea who was his greatest enemy but his greatest friend even one of his houshold-Chaplains And who but Jeremies familiars watched for his haulting Againe faith our Saviour The Servant is not above his Master John 15.20 But Christ having suffered so much if we should rest the Servant were above his Master which were senslesse to thinke For could not his wisedome innocency and holinesse sence him from these scornes and can thine fence thee Besides that ancient prediction must be fulfilled I will put enmity betweene the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 But if there be no warre betweene the men of the World and the children of God if they should not hate and persecure us this Prediction were not fulfilled Yea all the former predictions of Christ and many that I omit should bee false which were blasphemy once to thinke Wherefore marvell not my brethren though the World hate you as Saint John speakes 1 John 3.13 Neither count it strange as Saint Peter hath it concerning the fiery tryall which is among you to prove you as though some strange thing were come unto you 1 Pet. 4.12 for Christ and his Crosse are unseparable Luke 14.27 Againe search the whole Bible over and you shall not finde one holy man mentioned without mention of something hâ—e suffered from ungodly men as it were easie to instance how Abel Lot Noah Righteous men Abraham the Father of the Faithfull Isaac Jacob Joseph Patriarches and Fathers of the Church meek Moses upright Samuel holy David wise Solomon all the Lords Priests Prophets Apostles yea the harmelesse Babes and our Saviour Christ himselfe did severally suffer from wicked and ungodly men Yea never man came to Heaven but first he past thorow this Purgatory God had one Sonne without sinne but never any one without suffering which makes our Saviour say Woe be to you when all men speake well of you that is when evill men speake well of you for so did the Jewes of the false Prophets Luke 6.26 Whereas he pronounceth them blessed which heare ill for well doing Matth. 5.11 Which leads me to the second point Secondly For Scriptures to confirme comfort and strengthen weake Christians against the Worlds hatred and calumny these would be applyed which follow Blessed are they saith our Saviour which suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Matth. 5.10 And againe Blessed are yee when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you ver 11.12 And Saint Peter Rejoyce inasmuch as yee are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy for if ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you Which on their part is evill spoken off but on your part is glorified 1 Pet. 4.12 13 14. Loe here is reward enough for all that men or devils can doe against us And what will not men undergoe so their reward may be answerable But yet further What saith Saint Paul In nothing feare your adversaries whose malice is to them a token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God Phil. 1.28 Yea in the same Chapter vers 29. he preferreth the gift of suffering before the gift of beleeving And in his Epistle to the Church of Thessalonica peremptorily concludeth That they are elect of God from this ground That they received the Word in much affliction with joy in the holy Ghost Examine these Scriptures againe and againe for every word of them is ponderous and consider of whom and by whom they were spoken then certainely thou wilt confesse that if there be any Nectar in this life 't is in sorrowes wee endure for Righteousnesse And methinkes when I heare goodnesse calumniated I beare it the easier because the servants of vice doe it Quest What is the Originall ground of the Worlds hatred Answ That proclamation which God himselfe made in Paradise Gen. 3.15 where he saith unto the Serpent I will put enmity betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and her seed be or it shall bruise thine head and
thou shalt bruise his heele Quest What is meant here by Enmity Answ A bitter immoderate inveterate irreconciliable and endlesse hatred and division opposite to that amity and familiarity which formerly had been betweene the Woman and the Serpent Quest Betweene whom was this Enmity proclaimed Answ Betweene the Serpent and his seed on the one side and the Woman and her seed on the other Quest What is meant by the Serpent and his Seed Answ First by the Serpent we are to understand Satan who opened the Serpents mouth and caused it to speake with mans voice as the Lord by an Angell opened the mouth of Balaams Asse Numbers 22. Secondly By the Serpents seed is meant the whole generation of wicked men as all Interpreters conclude and other Scriptures make cleare calling them Serpents Generation of Vipers and Children of the Devill Matth. 23.33 John 8.44 1 John 3.10 Quest What is meant by the Woman and her Seed Answ By the woman is meant Eve by her seed we are to understand first and chiefly Christ the singular Seed who was so the Seed of the Woman as that he was not of the Man Gal. 4.4 being borne of a Virgin Isaiah 7.14 Secondly It imployeth all his members the Elect when once regenerate who are not onely Eves seed as she was the Mother of all living by nature but by faith also as else where they are called the seed or children of Abraham Gal. 3.29 Quest What occasioned the Lord to proclaime this enmity Answ Adams sinne in eating the forbidden fruit and Satans malice in moving and seducing him thereunto was the meritorious cause the originall of this discord is from Originall sin Quest What Instruction affords this Answ First That to be without reproaches and persecutions wee may rather wish then hope For what peace can we looke for betweene the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent seeing God himselfe from the beginning hath set them at enmity Yea once to expect it were an effect of frenzy not of hope Secondly If the Lord hath put this enmity between us and the wicked here is comfort in suffering warrant in opposing Thirdly If the Seed of the Woman fight on Christs side and they have Gods Word for their warrant they are sure to have him assist them and prevent their enemies And is not that God we fight for able enough to vindicate all our wrongs Quest Doth that hatred and enmity continue to this day Answ Yes the words are set downe indefinitely without limitation and so signifie that it shall be perpetuall from the beginning of time to the end of all time When time saith one began this malice first began nor will it end but with the latest man it is an everlasting Act of Parliament like a Statute in Magna Charta Quest To proceed from Explication to Confirmation and so to Application How prove you That there hath beene in all ages past is now and ever shall bee betweene the wicked and the godly a perpetuall Warre enmity and strife according to the Lords Prediction or Proclamation Answ For proofe I could produce testimonies and examples innumerable there being scarce a page in the Bible which doth not expresse or imply somewhat touching this enmity Yea as if the Scriptures contained nothing else the Holy Ghost significantly calls them the Booke of the Battles of the Lord Numb 21.14 as Rupertus well observes But I will confine my selfe and onely mention three examples in every age 1. To begin with the first age Viz. the old World before the Flood We reade of this war enmity and strife betweene Caine and Abel 1 John 3.12 Between Lâ—mech and the holy Seed Gen. 4.23 24. and between those wicked Gyants which Moses speakes of and the sonnes of God Gen. 6.2 to 12. Yea those Gyants bade battle to Heaven as our Mythologists add to ver 4. 2. After the Flood before the Law betweene all the men of Sodome and righteous Let Gen. 19.4 9.11 2 Pet. 2.8 Betweene Hagar and Ishmael the Bondwoman and her sonne and Sarah and Isaac the Free-woman and her son Gen. 21.9 10. Gal. 4 29. And between Esau and Jacob first in the wombe the more plainely to shadow out this enmity Gen. 25.22 23. and after they were borne Gen. 27.41 3. After the Law before Christ betweene Doeg and the eighty five Priests which he slew with the edge of the sword 1 Sam. 22.18 19. Betweene Jezabell and all the Prophets of the Lord which she destroyed 1 Kings 18.13 14. And betweene the Heads in Israel in Micahs time and all that were good Micah 3.2 4. Since the Gospell in the time of Christ and his Apostles this enmity so manifested it selfe not onely in the Gentiles but in the Jewes Gods owne people who first moved those persecutions against Christ and his Members that having beheaded John Baptist his Harbinger and crucified himselfe the Lord of life we read that of all the Twelve none dyed a naturall death save onely Saint John and he also was banished by Domitian to Pathmos and at another time thrust into a Tun of seething oyle at Rome as Tertullian and Saint Hierom doe report See Acts 7.51 to 60. 12.1 to 5. Rom. 8.36 Iohn 21.18 19. Now all these besides many other of his Disciples suffered martyrdome meerely for professing the faith of Christ whereof some were stoned some crucified some beheaded some thrust thorow with Speares some burnt with fire with a multitude of other Beleevers for Ecclesiasticall History makes mention of two thousand which suffered the same day with Nicanor Acts and Monuments page 32. which makes Saint Pâ—ul cry out I thinke that God hath set forth us the last Apostles as men appointed to death 1 Corinâ—h 4.9 5. After the Apostles if we consider the residue of the ten Persecutions raysed by the Romans against the Christians which was for three hundred yeares till the comming of godly Constantine we find that there was such an innumerable company of innocent Christians put to death and tormented that Saint Hierome in his Epistle to Chromatius and Heâ—â—odorus saith There is no one day in the whole yeare unto which the number of five thousand Martyrs might not be ascribed except onely the first day of Ianuary who were put to the most exquisite deaths and torments that ever the wit or malice of men or Devils could invent to inflict we reade of no lesse then twenty nine severall deaths that they were put unto if no other be omitted 6. From the Primitive times and infancy of the Church hitherto the Turke and the Pope have acted their parts in shedding the blood of the Saints as well as the Jewes and Roman Emperours touching which for brevities sake I referre you to the Booke of Acts and Monuments Yet because a taste may please some I will insert what the Holy Ghost hath foretold in the Revelation touching the Pope who cals himselfe Christs Vicar and supreame Head of the Church the Angell
onely shall be made crime enough you know when the Jewes saw that a great company were at Pauls Sermon they were filled with envy and fell to contradiction and blasphemy Acts 13.45 And the high Priests and Pharisees when our Saviour was so flockt after sayd among themselves perceive yee not behold the World goeth after him and if we let him thus alone all men will beleeve in him John 11.48 12.19 they were like the dog in the manger that will neither eate Hay himselfe nor suffer the Horse yet they had a reason for it as these have Rome thinkes that the Gospels rising must needs be her falling as when the day comes the night must end Indeed opinion makes them coyne that for a reason which others will not assent unto Yea what is truth to these men is error to others more wise And when once he is questioned every one like Jael to Sizera will drive a nayle to keep him from rising againe O the wicked mindes that many goe to Church withall and the great dangers that Ministers are lyable unto did not God mightily support them many of their hearers being like that Lawyer which stood up to tempt Christ for they come not to be taught by him but to catch him But what saith David Though they have conceived mischeife and doe travell with wickednesse yet they shall bring forth a lye Psal 7.14 For the Lord breaketh their counsels and bringeth their devices to naught Psal 33.10 Yea while the ungodly are whetting a knife to cut our throats God is whetting a sword to cut their throats Shall the powder thinke to blow up the house and scape it selfe from burning No it is a true rule that of evill premises doth not follow a good conclusion but from evill seeds come evill plants 4. They are very proane to imprison the godly cause or no cause As Ahab commanded Michaiah to be put into the prison house and fed with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction 1 Kings 22.27 Thus the malicious Priests procured Jeremiah to be shut up in prison Jer. 36.5 And thus our Saviour shewing what entertainement the faithfull should find in the World foretelleth that wicked men shall lay hands on them and deliver them up to the assemblies and into prisons bring them before Kings and Rulers for his names sake Luke 21.12 As John Baptist Peter Paul and many other of the Apostles were put into the common prison by Herod and the Synod of Priests when they preacht in Christs Name Acts 5.18 12.4 4.3 22.25 28.17 And 2 Cor. 11.23 And I le warrant you the common people were more glad of the Churches losse herein then they would have been of their owne gaine But why into prison Why not unto death No thankes to Satan nor his seede they would destroy all Yea Why are not our Sanctuaries turned into Shambles and our beds made to swimme with our bloods but that the God of Israel hath crossed the confederacy of Balaak and there wickednesse doth not prosper their studies are the plâ—ts of our ruine and the best they intend is the destructions and overthrough of Religion or the religious or both Againe Why these and a thousand more in all ages shut up in prison What was their delinquency Even this They were too good too holy to be endured What was it but Josephs goodnesse that brought him to the stocks and Irons And so of Michaiah Jeremiah the Apostles and all the Saints in succeding ages And to speake truly this is a deepe point of pollicy in our adversaries for when all their arguments faile by this meanes they get the better and withall prevent further dispute In the midst of their anger they this discretion Stand not to argue lest thou be overcome and let the accused plead what hee can for his own innocencie the Wolfe would answer the Lamb Indeed thy cause is better then mine but my teeth are better then thine I will devoure thee So the Devill puts off the Fox and puts on the Lyon Againe we know the Mâ—one hath so much the lesse light by how much it is neerâ—r the Sunne yea so long as the Sunne shines above the Horizon the Moone is scarcely seene And we use to say of Homer that the dazling beames of his Sunne makes all other Poets like little stars loose their light This made Dionysius when he could not equall Philoxenus in poetry nor match Plato in discourse condemne the one to the stone-quarries and sell the other as a slave into the I le of Agina And out of like consideration have the wicked alwayes dealt with the godly even as Julian the Apostate did by our Saviour who tooke downe his Image in contempt that he might set up his owne in the same place and have the people worship it which hee knew they would never doe so long as the other was reverenc'd 5. They often manifest their enmity against the religious by striking them as Zidkiah the false Prophet strooke Michayah on the cheeke 1 King 22.24 thus Pasher strooke Jeremiah Ier. 20.2 And the Princes also Chap. 37.15 And thus Ananias the high Priest caused Paul to be smitten on the mouth Acts 23.2 and the Iewes whipt him five times with forty stripes save one and others beat him with rods 2 Cor. 11.23.24.25 And thus our rough adversaries of Rome stopt our Martyrs mouthes and refuted them not with reasons nor by Law for the Law hath no power to strike the vertuous but with fists When Politisians Rhetorick failes Carters Logick must doe the fear Their arguments are all Steele and Iron they speake daggers points As Ioab discoursed with Amaza in the 5th Rib. So Zedikiah disputed with the Prophet a word and a blow yea a blow without a word for hee smote him first and spake to him afterwards Every false Prophet is like Iulius the second who threw Saint Peters keyes into the river Tiber protesting that thenceforth he would use and helpe himselfe with Saint Pauls sword And in case they cannot have their wills they resemble Achilles who is fained to eate his owne heart because he might not be suffered to fight 6. It is usuall with them to hurt and maime the godly as the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel would have served those true hearted Spyes for seeking to appease the tumult and speaking well of the land of Canaan had not the glory of the Lord appeared in the Tabernacle of the Congregation Numb 14.10 Thus the Philistims put out Sampsons eyes when they had bound him Indg. 16.21 and thus the Iewes of Antiochia and Iconium hurt Paul when they stoned him and drew him out of the City supposing he had beene dead Act. 14.19 Neither have succeeding ages wanted Alexanders who have done much hurt to Gods people for not seldome when reason and rayling failed have they come to plow-mans Logick Gunpowder arguments open violence taking up swords to strike or stones to
Saint Peter speakes who because they love to speake evill of the way of truth 2 Pet. 2.2.12 If they see but an hypocrite discover himselfe they not onely harden themselves in their sinnes and as it were breake their owne necks at this stumbling blocke being Satans trap set on purpose to catch their blind soules in but condemne all the rest of his profession to be such as hee is save that they dissemble their hypocrisie more closly cunningly which is as equal and just as it was for Simeon and Levi to murther all the Sechemites for the offence only of Hamors Son But as all are not thievs that dogs bark at so all are not hypocrites which they terme so Indeed as all our enemies are not alike witty so they are not alike malicious for some transcend this way as Doeg did the rest of Sauls servants another way you shall know such an one by these few markes his hatred is so inveterate and universall that he spends all his wit in frothy scoffes and invectives against the whole people of God and as if the doore were not wide enough except he set open all the windows and brake downe the walls to let in this infectious ayre his tongue scrues something against the religious into all discourses and when his owne invention failes it shall be supplyed with what he hath heard for as the Papists never found any error spued out by the Ancients but they have licked it up superstitiously to abuse the same so he never heares of any scoffe slander or divellish invective formerly devised but he licks it up that he may spit it out againe in the face of some professor or on the other fide poyson those with whom he doth converse being to his company like a mad dog that so biteth every one he meets that they become mad too and as apt to bite others as himselfe or in case he meets with another like himselfe in wit and malice it may be said of them as Diogenes spake of two ill conditioned women when hee saw them talking See how the Viper and the Aspe are changing poyson And nothing so ticles the spleene or glads the heart of such as that discourse which may most shame profession disgrace Religion and dishonour God But O that ever those tongues which dare call God Father should suffer themselves thus to be moved and possessed by that uncleane spirit Or that ever the Church should owne such for her children In the Primitive times the Church would have denied her blessing to such a Sonne that shouâ—d have thought himselfe disparaged by serving Christ and wearing of his livory although he had not scoft at others yet this man flatters himselfe that he is a Christian yea you cannot beat him from it but that he is as good a Christian as the precisest and shall goe to heaven as soone But let him that reads consider whether it be not a fearefull thing to lend to Satan the heart for devising the tongue for uttering and the eare for hearing of calumnies and all this to disgrace the grace of God in his children and make it frutlesse to themselves and others O impiety to be abhorred Such sport on earth is only sport for the fiends in hell and let them looke to it for such joyes may chance to cost them eternall mourning yea certainly if the infernall Tophet be not for them in case they repent not it can challenge no guests for I may well say unto such an one Many sinners have done wickedly but thou surpassest them all thine is such a superlative such a soule-murthering sinne that no other sinne can parallell it But thou hast plenty of excuses to pacify thy blinded and benummed conscience Yea thou wantest not some carnall reasons to make it good as an easie invention may put false matters into true Sylogismes And amongst the rest thou wouldest not have men singular wherefore that they may have lesse zeale and more temper thou seekâ—st to alay their heate with frumps and scoffs and taunts and jeeres as how often doe we heare remisse professors strive to choake all forward holinesse and zeale by commending the golden meane For carnall men who cleave as close to custome and example of the greatest number as clay to a Cart wheele thinke every one exorbitant that walketh not after their rule 1 Pet. 4.4 As the Sodomites thought of Lot Gen. 19.9 the hundred and twenty Governours of Daniel Dan. 6.11 and the Caldeans of Shadrach Meshech and Abednego Dan. 3 8. to 30. Daniel of all Darius his servants was so bold as to pray three times a day not in contempt of the King of Babylons decree but in zeale and obedience to the God of Heavens command the Governours stranging at it accuse him and say this Daniel which is of the captivity regardeth not thee O King nor the decree which thou hast signed but doth so and so wherefore command we pray thee that he be cast into the Lyons den for no decree nor statute which the King establisheth may be altered Dan. 6. Againe what disorder is this that I heare of you saith Nebuchadnezzar to Shadrach Meshech and Ahednego will not you serve my gods nor worship the golden Image that I have set up Dan. 3.14 who answer no be it knowne unto thee O King we are not carefull to answer thee in this matter they were all as stiffe as if they had eaten a stake and they could not bow to an Idoll as the godly have beene in all ages not being able to wheele with the times Yea they that truely feare God are usually as immoveable as the Sun in its course because they thinke and speake and live by rule and not by example and hold themselves as fast tyed as if they had the oath given them which the Aegyptian Kings solemnly presented to their Judges not to swerve from their consciences what command soever they should receive from rhemselves to the contrary Which strictnesse is a great eye-sore to carnall men who hate singularity almost as they doe sanctity which makes them to cry it downe Now this imputation of singularity and their extolling the meane is a cunning discouragement but it is the Devils Sophistry for the meane of vertue is betweene two kindes not betweene two degrees it is a meane grace that loves a meane degree of grace Yet this is the onely staffe with which the World beates all that are better then themselves What will you be singular Or are you wiser then all Or what is this but want of discretion And to speake truth that which worldly men call discretion eates up all true wisedome There discretion and moderate stayednesse devoures all true honesty and goodnesse But shall Lot leave his righteousnesse for such an imputation of singularity Or shall he not depart Sodom because the whole City thinkes it better to stay there still Shall Noah leave building the Arke and so himselfe and his houshold perish because all